From: Diva Las Vegas organizers (dlvorg@geekbabe.com)
Date: Mon Apr 20 2009 - 07:04:39 CDT
In this mailing:
Org List
Moving forward with Monday
Jamie Renae writes
Ginger writes
Kumiko writes
Edy writes
Debbie writes
JoAnn writes
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Org List:
This is the DLV 2009 Organizational Mailing List (dlvorg@geekbabe.com)
Replies to this message will be forwarded to the DLVORG list and not
the DLV-Announce or DLV-Discuss list.
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Moving forward with Monday:
First of all, I am planning for a "regular" ORG mailing tomorrow
since we have other business on the plate too.
. . . . .
Kimberly Komplin, are you feeling ok and confident regarding
continuing negotiations with Blue Ox? Do you need any support,
back-up, assistance?
Please let us know on this.
Do you need any written documentation WRT what it is the group
wants or expects? If so, I can surely dig up the relevant items
from last year's affair.
Do you need me or another of the senior volunteers to get on
the phone with you and the Blue Ox to help explain things?
If you need anything, please let me know ASAP.
. . . . .
Thanks again to all for the prompt and detailed comments. When
summarizing, we have some most definite recurring themes which
can form a nice set of bullet points regarding what we want
for the evening:
* No deejay. It's a mixer, not a dance!
* No cover charge, nuisance charge, no other barrier to entry.
* Dinner would be nice, not absolutely necessary.
* Slot tournament or other diversions not necessary.
* Blue Ox is the preferred venue, but not absolutely necessary.
. . . . .
We now have enough numbers to give a fair projection.
Sign-up is well underway and so far we have 52 signed up for
the dinner on Monday. The Magic Formula says that 42.4 of
them will actually show up and pay to eat. This is with 74
activity sign-up responses in and 93 outstanding. My guess
is that about 1/2 of the sign-ups that will come in are in
and we'll see maybe 20 of the remainder cancelled, most of
them for non-response.
These numbers, combined with the overall capacity projections
show a very high level of confidence that we'll have a very
good crowd of eaters and drinkers and that no venue will take
a bath financially on Monday.
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Jamie Renae writes:
>One thing comes to mind concerning eating at somewhere
>besides the Blue Ox. We all meet there for drinks and
>social time, like a happy hour.
>About the time we all start to think about eating the bar
>suddenly becomes empty. It seems that the management would
>like to keep the bar business going so a meal, at a
>reasonable cost, would greatly benefit them.
>I am not opposed to a different place as long as it is clean,
>no smoke, and quiet enough to talk with friends.
>I guess I missed the fact that the management had changed
>at the Blue Ox. If the folks that were there last year are
>gone, we owe them nothing.
I'm unaware of any management change at the Blue Ox, but I
admit that I don't know the staff well. I remember the one
guy who I assumed was the proprietor or general manager.
I also remember the one lady behind the bar (Danni?) and
sometimes a younger guy behind the bar too.
>Is PTs the old Keys place?
No.
PT's is a local chain of bar/grill type places. The one we
are talking about is on Sahara just west of 6th., IIRC,
maybe 3/4 of a mile west of the old Keys/Zingers.
I think of PT's as the typical Friday evening after work
place. Drinks are somewhat reasonable and they have a good
bar food menu too. The one over on Sunset has a good view
of runway 7/25 at McCarran and all of the plane action.
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Ginger writes:
>The easy way out is to keep our "welcome event" simple as
>an extended happy hour. People can then go eat when they
>want to and where they want to. That is what I intend to
>do anyway.
>What I tried to write from my iPod was, "I freely admit I
>am a very picky eater, mainly for health reasons, and am
>mostly vegan when I can be, so I will not be eating."
>I can understand why the Blue Ox ownership is concerned
>about making people angry if they don't have the staff
>and food on hand to cover a very large crowd. They are
>also likely concerned about getting stuck with the excess
>cost of staff not needed or food left over. Remember how
>irritated some DLV attendees were with the slow food service
>we had at Hamburger Mary's once?
>The main reason to go to the Blue Ox is that it is an
>inviting, intimate, and quiet neighborhood bar where we
>can talk, meet new friends and and catch up with old
>friends that we have not seen in months or even a year
>or longer. Appropriate background music is fine, but loud
>bar music would interfere.
>If we change the location let's keep that in mind and not
>go to a typical gay bar with blaring loud music or karaoke
>at least early on in the evening.
>What would the Blue Ox charge us to put out some popcorn,
>peanuts and other typical salty bar snacks? If it is a
>modest cost, as is should be, some of us might make a
>donation to cover that.
You do reflect another recurring theme, that dinner is
not necessary. Quite a few will be planning to eat elsewhere
but there are a number who have signed up for dinner, even
at the $17.95 price point.
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Kumiko writes:
>No DJ needed. I agree.
>The noise from all our conversations will already make it
>difficult enough to hear others speaking, and even low music
>will just make it harder to hear.
>Juke box or radio can be good enough.
>I can see having one if the Blue Ox then turns into a night
>club after we have our dinner for dancing [for our dlv
>attendees who will be paying for this service and not the
>walk in public].
>I can under management's concern taking a loss. We are trying
>to work with them to try and not create a loss. Maybe we should
>eliminate the meal if this is becoming a crowd control problem.
>This will mean to just have the Blue Ox as the HH and we need
>to find another restaurant for that night which may be
>difficult at this late date. It will eliminate the cover
>charge too.
>Another is if they have a bar menu, for those who want to eat,
>pay and order the bar food as individuals at that time from
>the bar, or mgmt allows and coordinates payment and delivery
>service from outside, ie pizza or pasta (ie Pizza Hut) into
>Blue Ox. Pizza goes well with beer and such so the bar
>would provide the liquid refreshments that go with the
>delivery.
IIRC, the regular menu at Blue Ox is really a bar food type
menu. Burgers, chicken wings, stuff like that.
Bars that serve food usually ABHOR people bringing in outside
food, pizza, etc! I don't wanna even open that can of worms.
>Another idea is have it a pre-pay event, and the organizer,
>(sorry more work) would purchase finger foods or snacks like
>we are doing for NSD. This eliminates Blue Ox from any loss,
>but they would have to allow outside food it. They will still
>make money on providing the liquid refreshments, The foods
>or snacks can be purchased from from Costco, Sam's, and again
>Pizza or pasta via Pizza Hut or other delivery services.
For an optimal turnout, we should have no cover charge and no
prepayment or any other barrier to entry. The purpose of this
is to get as many of our people together as possible and due
to this factor, we need to consider turnout before amenities,
entertainment, whatever.
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Edy writes:
>My sentiments... skip the DJ, for me its a deterrant for easy
>conversation. Also, I'm not looking for a dinner, buffet or
>otherwise, just to socialize with a drink in hand
>Why not just appetizers such as cheese and crackers, etc...
>The mgt at the blue Oak should be happy to have all of us
>buying drinks on a Monday night, and not charging people
>just to come thru the door. Cover charges are usually
>imposed to get money from people who come into a place to
>enjoy the entertainment but don't buy anything, but there
>is no entertainment here.
>The Blue Ox should be happy selling drinks to all of us
>and let them decide how much they want to charge and assume
>the risk of charging too much and loosing sales. If I'm
>given the choice of not drinking or geting gouged, I just
>don't drink much. Soo, lets ask the Blue Ox to offer their
>place with an appetizers only charge, and they can decide
>how to identify those who opt to pay ie braclet/ink
>stamp/tag, etc and they can decide how much to charge for
>beer and wine.
This is one of several suggestions that we scrub the dinner
and go with munchies or appetizers. Normally the bar will
provide or sell these. If that's what we want, we can do
something like this.
I'm sure, however, that the BO does want to have the
additional income from food, and also wants to keep the
crowd there to drink rather than having it go elsewhere
and not return, as was stated above.
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Debbie writes:
>I would not pay any cover charge.
>I think they did quite well last year due extra business
>brought in by DLV and will do so this year if they remain
>reasonable. I do not need a DJ for an evening that is
>meant to be a social where people get together to meet,
>Talk and get to know or refresh old friendships.
Agreed. We're delivering paying customers to them! (The
strip clubs pay a bounty of up to $100 to a taxi driver
for delivering a paying customer to them.)
They (BO) should make more than enough from drink sales
that evening, food or no food.
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JoAnn writes:
>Monday-- Blue Ox--
>Let's keep it simple as I read the e-mails........ How about???
>Have the Opening Reception with a "Drink Cover" of $10.00 that
>includes a one drink and limited snacks.
>Also offer dinner at the same location at $15.00/person with
>a limited menu of two entries [ chicken w/ pasta, or fish,
>and salad] which includes tip.
>No deejay.
>You now have reasonable costs for the value. An the Blue Ox
>has covered its cost, will have a good crowd, and the
>potential to make a profit.
If at all possible, I want to see no barrier to entry other
than the physical ability to open the door. The more I think
of it, the more I think that with the level of business we
will be giving them (80+ for drink, 50+ for food), there
should be no need for any kind of cover, even if bundled
with a drink or something.
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